


Healing Hands

by arwrite



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:55:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27192037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arwrite/pseuds/arwrite
Summary: Hey Everyone!I entered the November writing challenge on Harry Potter Fanfiction Club.Words I used: pumpkin, leaves, cider and sweaterI received an honorable mention.Description: Draco and Hermione haven't been speaking, something can't keep them a part though.This is a oneshot!
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Comments: 16
Kudos: 42





	Healing Hands

She stalked closer to their tree, the lights and sounds of the Halloween feast finally dampened by the distance. She wrapped her arms around her small body cursing herself that she didn’t bring her warmer cloak. Twilight had long passed and she hoped that he was not playing a trick on her. She sniffed the cool breeze, hoping for a whiff of what she was doing out here all by herself at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

“Granger, is that you?”

She looked up suddenly and hanging onto a low branch was Malfoy. Draco Malfoy.

“What are you doing up there? Are you going to come down or will I have to come up?”

Hermione heard the grin in his voice. “Come on up, Granger.”

She rolled her eyes and began to climb, knowing which tree branches to place her foot on and which to avoid. Her hands were like ice as she hoisted her leg over the last branch and they were at last face to face.

“Hi.” She panted.

“Hi yourself.” He pulled her closer to him.

“You have a lot of explaining to do.” She pushed his hands away from her waist, even though she longed to be near him.

“What?” He smirked.

“You know what Mr. Malfoy.”

“I have to keep up appearances.”

“That’s not a good enough explanation.” She pouted.

“You are beautiful when you stick your bottom lip out.” He rubbed his thumb over it and she swatted it away. 

“I’m not one of your Slytherin girls who follows you around and swoons with every word you say, you know that. I thought I meant more to you.”

“You do, look at me.” Draco pleaded. “Please.”

“Why?” She climbed higher to a treehouse that they made in their third year for secret meetings such as these. 

“Because you are my best friend and we have worked through so much.” He followed her through the branches and crawled into their safe haven and held the door open for her.

She scooched in, looking around at the discarded chocolate frog wrappers, the Daily Prophets and the Weird Sisters poster on the wall. Hermione lit her wand as she sat down on some discarded pillows that they stole from the laundry. That was the first time she broke the rules. 

Draco looked down at her frizzy brown hair, he wanted to make everything better. He sat beside her, but gave her the space she needed. 

She sighed, it was hard to stay mad at him even with what he did this past year. 

“You’re my best friend too,” she mumbled out and inched her hand closer to his. 

“Does that mean you forgive me?”

“Yes, why not? We both have enough going on.” She thought of the war that loomed and the fact that the wonderful boy sitting next to her was really one of them. A Death Eater.

“Come closer?” It wasn’t a command, it was a question.

“I thought you would never ask.” She ambled over to him and sat between his legs. He buried his face in her hair.

“I’ve missed this, I’ve missed you.”

Hermione blushed and tried around. “How can you still do that to me?”

“What?” He inched closer to her and nibbled on her neck, his breath smelling of pumpkin pie and fire whisky. 

“How can you make my stomach turn to jelly every time you’re near me?”

“Hermione’s in love.” He sing-songed, his warm breath against her skin.

She grabbed his shirt roughly and his breath caught. “You are in love too.” She closed the space between them. She could still taste the sweetness of pumpkin pie on his tongue and the sharp taste of the fire whisky, the warm and sharp odor filled her nostrils. It was intoxicating. 

She broke the kiss too early for Draco’s liking. 

Hermione hadn’t spoken to him since he showed her that awful mark on his arm, deepening the division between them. 

It had been a lonely year without her best friend. 

“Let’s go on a walk,” she told him abruptly and stood up awkwardly and held out her hand to him. 

He groaned, wanting to stay there nice and warm with her in his lap.

“Come on, afraid of the big, bad wolf?”

“No, I want to keep making out with you!” He told her directly.

“I’m not going anywhere and they aren’t missing us back at the castle.”

She jumped from the tree and leviated herself down the last couple of feet so she landed gracefully on the leaf-covered ground, making a crunch. She looked up and smiled at him challengingly. 

He did the same, but did a backflip in mid-air.

“Show off.” She scoffed and he smirked, grabbing her hand. 

They walked around the edge of the forest, Draco leading them past Hagrid’s Hut, Fang barked at the window, scaring Hermione closer to Draco. 

“What’s going on Draco?” She stared up at him with those big brown eyes that made him weak at the knees.

She saw the sunken black circles under his eyes, the brightness of the greying eyes that drew her to him, weakened over the past year. 

“I want to tell you, but I’m afraid that they will come looking for you if I do.”

“That’s not good enough.”

“Lord Voldemort gave me an assignment and I am having a hard time making it come to fruition.”

She smiled at that. How many times had they met up in their haven to do homework? “My vocabulary is rubbing off on you,” she said, amused.

They were quiet for several minutes and they kept walking into the Dark Forest. 

“What can I do to help?”

“Nothing, I want you to keep far away from all this. I feel like my life belongs to someone else. I need to protect you!” 

They were quiet again.

“How is studying going for your N.E.W.T.S.?” Draco asked, hoping that she would not catch the sudden change in subject.

Hermione tilted her head back and laughed and held onto his hand tighter. All of the students could feel the tension in the air, but this situation felt normal. Even the laughs of the first years were filled with a hollowness that wasn’t there a year or two ago. 

Draco looked at her stunned.

“I’m sorry, but nothing about this is normal. I want to go back to the years that we were sneaking around and pretending to hate each other, but we really liked each other.”

***************************

Hermione wandered down to the edge of the Forbidden Forest in tears of stress, anguish and hunger. She threw down her bag and started to pace in front of the biggest tree in front of the peaceful lake. She let down her long, tangled hair that sat up on her head in a messy bun. 

_ Why did she have to take on so many classes? Why was she taking Muggle Studies? To prove to herself that she could learn something more than her parents already taught her or was it something more?  _

Draco came down the lawn and she groaned.  _ How could this day get any worse? _

Draco took a large bite out of an apple that he carried with him. 

Maybe he wouldn’t bother her.

She kept pacing, but tracked him with her eyes as she thought about what to get done first. 

If she heard one more time how hard everything was for Harry and Ron she was going to curse them. She couldn’t even tell them that she had a Time Turner, she had been told strongly not to tell anyone. Knowing Harry and Ron they would get her into trouble. 

“Granger!” Draco yelled and sauntered over to her. 

“Hello, Malfoy,” she responded as she kept pacing, not caring what he said to her.

“What are you doing down here? I thought you would be with your boyfriends or did you break up?” Draco sneered, but the insult did not reach his eyes, something was on his mind too.

“I have my own life. Where are your cronies?”

“I needed some space.”

She shivered as the nights were getting colder, the brisk summer breeze turning to a harsh autumn wind.

He watched her and sat down, leaning up against the tree.

Their forbidden relationship started like that. About a month in, the weather was too cold to remain meeting outside even with the fires that they conjured. They didn’t speak much but Draco brought apples and peanut butter for Hermione as he saw that she wasn’t in the Great Hall for meals that often. She started to wordlessly look over his essays and make grammatical and spelling changes as breaks from her work. 

“Come with me!” Draco said. He went around to the lowest branch of the tree that they were leaning against. He started to climb.

She huffed and rolled up her sleeves and followed. 

He leaned down and grabbed her hand, he hoisted her up and then she was in the treehouse. “I thought that since we couldn’t be outside and neither of us want to be in the castle, that I could make a place for us to study.” He told her and looked down at the wooden boards that were unevenly nailed into place.

“Thank you.” She whispered and summoned both their bags.

Hermione looked down at his hands which were hastily bangaged and dirty with dried blood.

“Let me fix your hands.” She tapped his hands. “Episkey.” The bandages dropped to the uneven floor.

Draco wiggled his fingers. “Thanks for that.”

“No problem.”

They didn’t talk for another week and then suddenly Christmas tests were upon them. 

Hermione’s hair grew coarser and coarser as she studied for all of her exams. She hummed while she worked, Draco thought that it was adorable. 

“What are you humming?” He asked one day in the midst of test week.

She jumped, forgetting he was there. “You wouldn’t know it, it’s a muggle song.” 

“Enlighten me!”

She glanced at him, wondering if he was joking, she decided to tell him. “It’s called ‘Healing Hands’ by Elton John. We are learning about all the great artists in Muggle Studies. We have to write a paper about why we find a certain piece of music pleasing.”

He thought about this for a minute. 

“My parents don’t let me listen to any music at home.”

They were silent for a while.

“It’s not like listening to the real thing, but maybe tomorrow I can bring up my Muggle Studies book and you can look at the lyrics.”

Draco beamed at her. “Thanks.”

That is exactly what she did. They bonded over music and theatre. They started on opposite sides of the treehouse, but now they were sitting side by side doing homework. 

After the Christmas holidays, Draco brought some of the plethora of sweets up to the treehouse and Hermione brought Draco some of her parent’s favorites to pass out to the patients: toothbrushes. She giggled at him as he crackled the package in his hands: twisting it this way and that. She took out toothpaste and spread it on the blue toothbrush and he cleaned his teeth for the first time, the Muggle way. He laughed at the sensation that it brought to his lips, teeth, and jaw. 

She laughed along with him. 

Draco wanted to be out of the house for as long as possible that summer. Something had shifted when Pettigrew had escaped and gone back to Lord Voldemort. It had given a lot of ex-Death Eaters hope that they would be on top of the wizarding world again.

Draco wandered around England not sure where he was going, but he didn’t care. He just wanted to be in control of something. His father assumed that he would be joining the Dark Lord’s cause, but he wanted to make his own decisions. 

When he stepped onto Tottenham Court Road one day in July, he saw a familiar bushy-headed girl in front of him. She looked to be doing some shopping with her mother. 

“Granger!” He called before he could lose the nerve.

She whipped around and her eyes crinkled when she saw him.

“Mum, this is one of my friends at school. This is Draco.”

He noticed that she omitted his last name.

Draco and her mother shook hands. Before he knew it, he was sitting at their table for dinner. His family hadn’t done this since he had been little. 

They sat on the porch swing after dinner taking in the night noises. An owl hooed, there was a motorcycle who revved its engine from two or three blocks over. “Thanks for inviting me over for dinner.”

“You’re welcome.” They both sat silently for a moment.

“Why didn’t you say my last name?”

“Because you are more than just a Malfoy to me, you are my friend and I want to get to know the real you.”

Every day from then on that summer, Draco would pick her up at her house and they would walk around. Draco liked having something to do. Hermione showed him all the fantastic places in the muggle world. 

When they sat at a library table one day, Draco finally listening to “Healing Hands,” Draco had an idea.

“Come with me!” He told her and stood up.

“Where are you taking me?” She asked as she was led out by the hand.

“You’ve been showing me all the great places in the Muggle world, I want to show you my favorite place in the wizarding world.”

“Sure. Okay.” She mulled this over. He took her soft delicate hand again.

They walked for about 20 minutes and there before them was a magical playground. “Only wizards and witches can come in here. My parents brought me when I was little and I have come to just think things through.” They were still holding hands. “Something is on your mind, tell me.”

She puffed out her cheeks and walked forward, the lights came on underneath her feet. She giggled and started to dance around making designs in the mulch. He looked at her lazily as he sat on a swing. He knew by now that she would reveal that to him when she was ready. 

She sat down on the swing next to him that lazily picked up speed by itself.

“Am I a bad person?” She asked.

“No, I think you are the best person I have ever met.”

“Then why do I have these feelings of being better than my parents ever since I found out I was a witch.”

_ Trend lightly, Draco. _

“I don’t know.” He answered honestly. 

“Thanks for the help.” She leaned back in her swing and pumped higher.

“When I was growing up, I was taught how wizards are the best kind, purebloods are the best of the best. I am supposed to follow what my parents have taught me. Make friends with the right people and follow in my father’s footsteps when I get older. What I have realized this summer is that people who are taught that are missing out!”

“Missing out on what?”

“Elton John for one, all the books that you showed me. Movie theatres and the best popcorn around.”

She made a face. “Seriously?”

“Seriously. Remember that the next time you think that wizards are all that. We are not. I would rather be with your family, not knowing that I was a wizard until I was eleven than be with my family and miss out on all the wonders of the Muggle world.”

“I guess you're right, I mean Elton John’s music is pretty cool.”

“It really is.” 

They sat at the playground for a while more and then he walked her home. 

The first week of fourth year had been rough for the both of them. This was the real deal and they had so much homework. They decided to meet in their treehouse on Friday evening to get some work done. They were in the same Potions section which overjoyed both of them as they settled with their books open. The musty smell becoming more and more like the aroma of home. 

Draco brought her a chocolate frog. They sat side by side and completed the first week of Potions homework. 

“How was your week?” Hermione asked, putting down her quill to take a bite of the chocolate frog. 

Draco shrugged and elbowed her in the ribs. “Can we not talk about school? I have so much to do!” He groaned, but smiled down at her. Hermonie’s hand had found his and was rubbing her thumb back and forth trying to calm him.

“Sure.” She smiled. 

“Can we talk about our relationship?” Draco went for it. He wanted this to be more.

“Sure,” she said again and blushed.

“I want to be more than just friends.”

“How would that work? We’ve been sneaking around for the past year.”

Hermione was going to be forever a realist. 

“I won’t be unfaithful to you if that’s what you mean.”

“Not exactly. I want to hold your hand in public, kiss you in the Great Hall. Get found by a teacher in a broom closet without the repursions of your father.”

This was not how he wanted this conversation to go. 

“Hermione you are the best thing that has ever happened to me, I will make you feel like you are the only girl in the world. Please, take a chance on me.”

“You still haven’t answered my questions!” She huffed, but came over to him, her small arms encircling his torso. 

He lay a kiss on her bushy head. 

“I don’t know how things will look.” He whispered, Hermione was so close that it was hard to concentrate on anything but the way they fit together and the smell of her.

“I don’t like unanswered questions.” She looked into his grey eyes.

“I know you don’t.” 

She leaned up on her tiptoes so she was mere inches away from his lips.

“Can I?” He asked, looking at her lips.

“May I?” She corrected and inched closer. “Yes, please,” she said hungrily. 

That Christmas was hard for Draco. He had never felt more at home than when he was with Hermione. Three long weeks without her felt too long. When his parents went out on Christmas Day in their party best, leaving him by himself, he put on his coat and wandered out into the frigid air. His feet took him to the little house. He watched Hermione in her pajamas opening gifts with her parents and how excited she became when she got a book that she wanted.

She saw him staring at her through the window. She put on her fluffy coat and opened the door. “Are you going to stand there like a creeper or come in?”

“I didn’t want to interrupt.” He made to walk away, but Hermione caught up with him and put her hand in his.

“Come in. We were just about to have some hot cider.”

“Oh Draco,” her parents said. “Happy Christmas!” Her mum hugged him and her dad shook his hand. 

“Make yourself at home!” Her mother said as she went to the kitchen to get another mug full of warmth.

“Thank you so much. I don’t want to be an intrusion.”

“You are not being an intrusion, don’t even think of that!” Hermione’s father clapped him on the back. He sat down on the couch besides Hermione, their knees touching. 

“We will leave you two.”

“You don’t have to!” Draco stated, feeling he was imposing.

“I want to go set up my new toolbox and Hermione’s mother needs to start making some final adjustments to Christmas dinner.”

He left, whistling a Christmas tune while he went.

“I have something for you!” Draco said as he pulled out a hastily wrapped gift with green ribbon on it.

“You didn’t have to get me anything!” Hermione told him, taking the gift from him with light fingers.

“Just open it.” He smirked at her and she nodded. “You aren’t going to keep the wrapping paper.”

She made a face at him and ripped the paper off. 

“Oh my gosh!” She exclaimed as she held the book out to admire it. 

“I know that you have a lot of catching up to do in terms of wizard reading and I thought this would help.”

She hugged him. “Thank you so much. I’m going to start getting these books right now.”

She stood up. He looked bewildered. 

“What are you waiting for, let’s go!”

“Oh, right now.”

“Yes, right now. Mum, Dad we will be back in time for dinner.”

On the train ride to Diagon Alley, Hermione flipped through the present that Draco gave her. “100 Wizarding Books to Read Before You Die” by Bathilda Bagshot. 

She dogeared the pages that she wanted to get, all the while holding Draco’s hand. 

He was the happiest that he had ever been that break. 

After Christmas dinner with another mug of hot cider in their hands, they snuggled under a blanket together. 

“This has been the best day!” Draco whispered into Hermonie’s hair and kissed it.

“I thought the Malfoy’s had the grandest Christmas celebrations.”

“We do on the outside for the press, but in our little family unit we are very impersonal. My mum and dad went out galavanting today; they probably don’t even know I’m gone. I’m jealous of your family.”

Hermione laughed and he blushed. 

“I’m sorry, I am more laughing at myself than at you. We don’t have very much, but what we do have is family.”

  
  


***************************

Draco grabbed her lightly and angled her into a tree. There was no space between them. His mouth found hers, the intoxicating taste of the sweetness and the harshness came back to Hermione. She tilted her head and he began to nibble down her neck.

“What if we just runaway?” Hermione whispered as her hands entangled themselves in his hair. 

“I would be putting you in danger, Auntie Bella would find me and make me complete my task.”

He didn’t want to say what else he was thinking:  _ and probably kill you _ . They both knew it.

“Can we just pretend that our relationship isn’t complicated for one night?”

“Yes, please.”

His lips were back on hers, his hands encircled her waist hungrily.

“Will you promise me one thing?” Draco asked, coming up for air as he brushed his hands through Hermione’s hair.

“Promises are hard to keep, especially now, but I will try for you.” She placed her hand on his cheek, he leaned into it.

“Will you promise me that whatever you hear or see, you will allow me to explain myself to you. Please don’t shut me out again. It was torture.”

She grinned. “We are both stubborn. I promise.” Hermione wrapped her arms around his waist and sealed the promise with a kiss.

“I have a surprise for you anyway!” He smiled and took her hand back to the treehouse. “Close your eyes.”

She did as she was told, smiling the whole time. 

“Open.” He took out a bottle of apple cider that he had asked Dobby for in the kitchens. 

She clapped. “You know that this is my favorite. Yum.” He poured two glasses and handed her one.

“Did I ever tell you the story of why apple cider is my favorite?”

“No, tell me!” He sat down next to her and she laid her bushy-head on his shoulder.

“Well, I must have been about six. My parents didn’t have a lot of money, but I love Halloween so my mum made a homemade pickle costume. I went trick or treating with my dad. I came home and there was a bottle of apple cider waiting for me all warmed up. It was the little things like that that really stick out to me.”

Draco looked down, he didn’t have any memories like that. “I like apple cider because that was the first time that I knew that I was in love with you. You included me in your festivities when you didn’t need to. That’s the first holiday that I can look fondly back on.”

She nuzzled into his neck and they both took a sip of apple cider.

“I also have something for you.” She stood up and he groaned. “Don’t worry, I’m coming back, you are so needy.” She laughed. 

“I’ve missed you!” He whispered. 

“I’ve missed you too.” She smiled at him coyly. 

She took out a lumpy thing and threw it at him. He looked up at her surprised. He unraveled it. It was a green sweater with a ‘D’ on it. 

“You got me a Weasley sweater?” He asked in disbelief, tears coming to his eyes. 

“You don’t like it, it’s okay. I thought it was a little cheesy anyway.”

“I love it and I love you.”

“You do?” She beamed. “I got the idea last Christmas. I know that Christmas isn’t the greatest time for you and I couldn’t wait any longer and I don’t know if it will be safe for you to come to my house for Christmas this year. I asked Mrs. Weasley for instructions on how to make one and she told me. I am not the best knitter, but with a little practice and some pokes to my fingers, I made that for you. I put my blood, sweat and tears into our relationship now.” She laughed. Her laughter filled the treehouse with the light that they had both been missing for the last year.

“I have something else.”

“No more! I don’t have anything for you.”

“It’s nothing big, I found it while going through old papers.” She went over to her bag that had long been discarded. She took out an old piece of parchment.

“Read it,” she said, snuggling against him again.

Draco read:

_ Hermione Jean Granger _

_ Third Hour _

_ Professor Burbage _

_ December 15th, 1993 _

_ “Healing Hands” by Elton John Reaction Paper _

_ “And reach out for her healing hands Reach out for her healing hands There's a light, where the darkness ends, Touch me now and let me see again, Rock me now in your gentle healing hands” _

_ I made an unlikely friend this year. If it weren’t for this song, it might have never broken the ice between us. I had these preconceived notions about what he was and what he stood for. After getting to know him, I know that he is the sweetest, kindest person that has made me think on a deeper level than ever before. He is now someone that I go to because I trust him. _

_ Music can do that, break down barriers.  _

_ From now on, I want to continue to break down barriers. I want to smile at people that I usually wouldn’t. I want to help people that I wouldn’t usually help. I don’t know what could come out of those interactions if I don’t try. _

“I got an ‘A’ on that. I couldn’t find the rest of it, but the rest of it is boring.”

Draco cleared the lump in his throat. “Of course, you did.” He slid his arms around her waist. “You really think I am the kindest person, even now?’

“Yes, even now! That’s why I was so shocked and upset, but I know that you are only doing it to protect those you love.”

“Like you, I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I love you too.”

Hermione’s arms encircled his waist, they stayed like that for a long time.

They fell asleep in their treehouse, snuggled together under a frayed Slytherin blanket.

Draco awoke to Hermione’s breathing, her head still snuggled against his chest. 

“Morning,” he told her and kissed the top of her head.

“Morning.” She yawned and snuggled closer. 

“I would love to stay here forever, but I am hungry.”

She smiled. “I brought some apples and peanut butter and we can have the rest of the apple cider.”

“Wonderful.” He summoned her bag and the apple cider so he didn’t have to move. Some of the apple cider came over the brim of one of the cups and onto Hermione’s face. 

She laughed. 

“I am so sorry. I’m not as good with summoning charms as you are!”

“It’s fine.” She sat up and looked around the treehouse for anything to wipe it off. 

“Here.” He leaned forward and kissed her cheeks, her forehead and her lips. 

“This is also why I love apple cider!” She leaned into his kiss. 


End file.
